THERE was chaos for motorists travelling to and from Ewhurst when two roads to the village were closed to traffic.

Last week’s double closure left parents trying to get their children to the Duke of Kent School fuming and local drivers angry.

An investigation has now been launched into why Surrey County Council’s highways department allowed the closure of Peaslake Road to go ahead for work by BT while the single track section of the road to Shere was also closed.

“This has proved an absolute nightmare,” declared Cranleigh and Ewhurst county councillor Alan Young, who put pressure on his authority to sort the problem out as soon as he became aware of it.

The problems started when Hound House Road was shut on February 18 under an emergency closure order because of the dangerous condition of the road.

The ‘Road Closed’ signs remained until Tuesday (March 12).

“It should have re-opened last Thursday (March 7) and an investigation is taking place into why that did not happen,” said Cllr Young.

At the same time, though, BT had applied for the total closure of Peaslake Road – the only access to the Duke of Kent School – for a total of 11 weeks from Monday (March 4) to May 20, meaning there would be an overlap with the Hound House Road closure.

This had been allowed to go ahead, even though the county council’s street works team is supposed to ensure this cannot happen, without local people being informed.

“There were also problems with the signage, which was not very clear at all, and some parents were driving around in circles. It was absolute chaos,” said Cllr Young.

“The street works team admits it made some very grave errors in the handling of this,” he said, explaining that he had also received a personal ‘unreserved apology’ from street works manager Kevin Orledge after some residents were wrongly told the problems had arisen because he had twice asked for the postponement of the BT works.

Cllr Young said he had instructed officers to ensure that Peaslake Road is kept open at all times, if necessary by the use of traffic lights and in particular today and tomorrow during the Duke of Kent’s literature festival.

“I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said, explaining that he had received many complaints from parents who were ‘very unhappy’ with the situation.

“People who do not have children at the school have said it was absolute carnage with all those four-wheel drives trying to do three-point turns in the narrow lanes,” added Cllr Young.

Ewhurst’s borough councillor, Diane James, agreed, saying: “It was quite simply chaos. The road to Shere was blocked as were other roads leading north.

“The diversion signs made no sense and were located in positions whereby one started out on a journey only to find one’s route blocked.

“It is all very well Surrey County Council undertaking repairs, but there does not seem to be any joined-up thinking as to the implications and impact on road users of doing all the roads simultaneously and without any thought to a sensible diversion process and signage.

“As it is some of the roads still have serious potholes so the risk is that residents will have to endure a repeat of this,” she added.

Richard Cleaves, chairman of Ewhurst Parish Council, which will be discussing the problems at its meeting on Monday (March 18), said: “It is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing – and the ones who do know don’t tell anyone. BT has not helped the situation.”